Talk:Catapult

Even though Brian Jacques portrayed the catapult and the ballista to be the same thing, they are not. A ballista is actually a machine much like a large crossbow or a mini-sized catapult. It could hurl either arrows or small boulders or a small pack of boulders. The catapult was a siege weapon used to hurl rocks, boulders, and at some times even diseased carcasses. The main difference is size. The catapult was much bigger and fired bigger loads from farther distances. Ballistas were used at a slightly more moderate range with more moderate-sized projectiles. --Neildown  Semper fi 17:21, March 15, 2010 (UTC)